The Cougars were the last non-NHL team to win the Cup as the WCHL (renamed the Western Hockey League for the 1925-26 season) folded after the 1926 Cup Final, leaving the Stanley Cup to become the NHL's de facto championship trophy. The Cougars would also be the last team based west of Chicago to win the Cup until the Edmonton Oilers won the trophy in 1984. These were also the last Stanley Cup Final games to be played in Western Canada until the Vancouver Canucks qualified for the 1982 Final. Games one, three and four were held in Victoria. Game two, held in Vancouver, was the last neutral site game in Stanley Cup Final history that did not involve the New York Rangers.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens also finished the NHL regular season in third place. In the NHL playoffs, Montreal went on to beat the second place Toronto St. Patricks, 5-2, in a two-game total goals series. The winner of that series was to go on and play the first place Hamilton Tigers. However, the Tigers were suspended after Hamilton players staged a strike in an attempt to receive more compensation because the league extended the regular season from 24 to 30 games. As a result, the Canadiens were declared the 1924-25 NHL champions.

Game summaries

With the demise of the PCHA, the Stanley Cup playoffs reverted to a single best-of-five series to determine the champion. However, the Cup Finals still annually rotated between the east and the west, and thus all of the games in the 1925 Finals were played on the West Coast. Games one, three and four were played at the 4,200 seat Patrick Arena in Victoria; Game two was played at the Denman Arena in Vancouver.[1] The decision to use the larger Denman Arena (10,500 seats) for game two was based on the huge demand for tickets.[2] The Cougars jumped to a two games to none series lead with 5-2 and 3-1 victories, but the Canadiens won game three, 4-2. In game four, Gizzy Hart scored the game-winning goal in Victoria's 6-1 win to clinch the Cup.[3]

Cougars goaltender Hap Holmes recorded a 2.00 goal-against average for the series. Jack Walker led Victoria in goals with four, while Frank Fredrickson scored three. Overall, eight different player combining for the Cougars' 16 goals.

Victoria Cougars 1925 Stanley Cup champions

Victoria players Frank Fredrickson and Haldor Halderson became the first players to win both an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup. Fredrickson and Halderson had been members of the Winnipeg Falcons who won gold at the 1920 Olympic Games.[4]

Coaching and administrative staff:

Stanley Cup engraving

After the series win, a new angled ring with the words "Won/By/'Cougars' Victoria, B.C. 1925" was added between the original bowl of the Cup and the original first ring of the base. All players and the manager were included on the new ring, but trainer Larry Brunnell was left off.

What do Alexi Kovalev, Ted Irvine, and Mike Rogers all have in common? They all wore number 27 for the New York Rangers. Current team captain Ryan McDonagh joined their ranks when he became a Ranger in 2010. Since the Rangers first adopted uniform numbers in 1926, the team has handed out only 83 numbers to more than 1,000 players. Thatâs a lot of overlap. It also makes for a lot of good stories. New York Rangers by the Numbers tells those stories for every Ranger since â26, from Clarence Abel to Mats Zuccarello. This book lists the players alphabetically and by number; these biographies help trace the history of one of hockeyâs oldest and most beloved teams in a new way. For Rangers fans, anyone who ever wore the uniform is like family. New York Rangers by the Numbers reintroduces readers to some of their long-lost ancestors, even those they think they already know.

Famous games and players have been the hallmark of the New York Rangers from their NHL debut in 1926 to the present day. From Frank Boucher and the original Blueshirts to Jaromir Jagr, the Rangers have thrilled their fans with some of the most memorable performances in hockey history. In this newly revised edition of Game of My Life New York Rangers, John Halligan and John Kreiser share the recollections of over twenty of the most famous names in Rangers history as they discuss the most memorable games in their careers. Boucher describes the Rangers' first game; Clint Smith remembers what it was like to win the Stanley Cup in 1940; Mark Messier and the stars of the 1994 team share their memories of the games that ended the fifty-four-year Cup drought; Wayne Gretzky talks about his final NHL game; and Jagr describes his feelings about setting team scoring records. It's the best kind of anecdotal history, in which the people who made history are the ones doing the telling. Game of My Life New York Rangers takes readers inside the mind of each player and behind the doors of the locker room to reveal what really happened, and how it affected the people who were involved in some of the most memorable moments in New York hockey history.